Position of Power 12/19

December 19th, 2013

There’s a section of the Mohegan Sun Arena, down in the corner opposite the Zamboni door, maybe 108, that loves Bobby Farnham. Chants his name when he delivers a hit, draws a penalty or does most anything.

Those fans could have a unique opportunity to cheer for their boy this weekend.

At practice this morning at Coal Street, Farnham was on the second power-play unit.

Farnham has five goals in 91 career AHL games, so it’s a commentary on the massive call-ups the Penguins have endured lately, sure, but it’s also a reward for solid play. Coach John Hynes was effusive in his praise of Farnham’s recent work after practice. Much more on that in the paper and online tomorrow in my Friday Morning Faceoff notebook.

In other personnel news, Eric Hartzell, coming off a pair of wins last weekend, including a 22-save shutout of Utica on Saturday, will start tomorrow night against Worcester. Reid McNeill, who is day to day with an upper body injury, won’t play this weekend. Dominik Uher, who hasn’t played since taking a puck to the face in a Nov. 27 game, is good to go.

The question of whether the Penguins will receive any reinforcements from Pittsburgh in the next few days is a complicated one due to the NHL roster freeze, which starts at 11:59 p.m. tonight and runs through Dec. 27. I posted the applicable text from the CBA after the jump if you’re into stuff like that, but I’ll try to interpret as best as I can.

Pittsburgh has 13 forwards with the return of James Neal from suspension tonight. They might choose to keep an extra guy around, which wouldn’t be unusual at all, but if they decide to trim the roster, there are some restrictions. Trades and waivers during the roster freeze are prohibited. If they want to send down a player who was called up before Dec. 11 or was called up under non-emergency conditions, they have to do it tonight. If they want to send down a player who was called up after Dec. 11 or was called up under emergency conditions, they have to do it before midnight Monday.

Brian Gibbons, Harry Zolnierczyk and Philip Samuelsson were called up after Dec. 11, so the Monday deadline applies to them. To be completely honest, I don’t know whether Zach Sill, Chris Conner, Andrew Ebbett, Jayson Megna, Simon Despres or Brian Dumoulin were called up under emergency conditions or not.

One other exception is this: Say one of the players on long-term IR in Pittsburgh, Rob Scuderi or Paul Martin, is healthy enough to come back during the freeze. If Pittsburgh needs to send someone down to put Scuderi or Martin on the roster and stay under the cap, they can do so.

I hope I didn’t screw anything up there. I’m sure I did. Like I said, after the jump, you can read the legalese for yourself.

Bye for now,

jb

Holiday Roster Freeze

(i) For all Players on an NHL Active Roster, Injured Reserve, or Players with Non-Roster and Injured Non-Roster status as of 11:59 p.m. local time on December 19, a roster freeze shall apply through 12:01 a.m. local time December 28, with respect to Waivers, Trades and Loans;

provided, however, that Players may be Recalled to NHL Clubs during this period and, provided further, that if a Player is placed on Regular Waivers prior to the roster freeze period and is claimed during such roster freeze period, the roster freeze period shall not apply and the Player shall immediately
report to the claiming Club.

However, during the roster freeze period a Club can make any Player transactions necessary for the Club to come into compliance with Article 50 as a result of a Player being removed from the Bona-Fide Long-Term Injury/Illness Exception.

(ii) Notwithstanding Section 16.5(d)(i), a Player on emergency Recall may be Loaned during the roster freeze period and a Player who was Recalled after December 11 may be Loaned through 11:59 p.m. local time on December 23, provided such Player is not required to be placed on Waivers during the roster freeze period in order to effectuate such Loan.

A winner of first-place honors in the blogging category of the 2012 Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors awards, Penguins Insider was created to give local hockey fans an interactive, in-depth way to follow the team they so passionately support. The blog's author, beat writer Jonathan Bombulie, has been covering the team since its inception in 1999. Contact him at jbombulie@aol.com

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